


Closer to a Disaster

by dirtylittlegreasemonkey



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:04:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4993087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtylittlegreasemonkey/pseuds/dirtylittlegreasemonkey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron and Robert are newly together again and keeping it secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closer to a Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> A very short, quite pointless fic. But I haven’t written any in ages and I just wanted to write something.

_U neva pulled! Gd nite then?_

_> > Didn’t say I pulled. Just said I’m not home._

_> > But yea. Top night._

_You DID. Mate._

_> > Whatever. See ya._

_> > Look don’t fucking hint to my mum or anything, alright?_

_Go on then. Spill._

_> > Mind your business._

_yea whatever casanova_

“Something funny?”

It was reflexive – Aaron’s next move – pressing the home screen and minimising the text conversation. He slid the phone across the lacquered surface of the bedside cabinet, still laying on his stomach, and craned his head around to the strip of corridor between the bedroom and the en-suite. Robert’s body was backlit by the light coming from the bathroom, a soft buttery glow – not the kind of scratchy, buzzing white lights you get in cheap hotel bathrooms, that makes everyone – even Robert Sugden - look grim. No, this – naturally – was the kind of bathroom with acres of tiled space, with a deluxe shower and a tub with a massage feature. With towels so white it was as if they had never been touched, let alone used.

Robert had one of them around his waist, knotted at his hip but low enough to flash a line of bone as he walked, and another towel in his hand which he rubbed against his hair. The hair had plastered to the sides of his face in dark patches and left droplets from the shower to cruise down his neck and sink into to the freckled skin of his collar. The sensitive areas of his skin were flagged, lit up, in warm shades of pink. He’d obviously had the shower set to scolding and knowing him, hadn’t been in there long, hoping that if he left Aaron sleeping, he’d still be curled up and naked when he returned. He had been right in that respect.

“Just Adam,” Aaron said, feeling self-conscious and gathering the bed sheet up a little further, fully aware that when Robert had walked in his gaze had single-mindedly tracked the curve of his arse which, at that point in time, was barely covered.

“Right.” Robert stretched and tossed the smaller towel over the back of one of the chairs. It looked like some attempt a macho display of testosterone, to puff himself up like that, as if this were some animal kingdom competition. Like Adam was some sort of threat. Aaron had spent the entire night with Robert consuming every part of his body and brain and still he felt insecure?

“I just told him I wasn’t in. He was going to pop in at the pub.”

Robert nodded and readjusted the front of his towel so it fitted tighter and then he sat on the edge of the bed. “So I should expect a phone call from my sister any time from now, then?”

“Why?”

“Well if Adam knows, then Victoria will know and it’ll be half way round the village by lunch time.”

Aaron huffed and lumbered his way onto his back, the mattress jerking at the change in position. He could only see half of Robert’s face from where he was and the rest of it reflected in the mirror on the wall opposite. He had that downturned, downtrodden expression of defeat. A sulking child.

“I didn’t mention you.”

Robert smelt distractingly different in this room, of hotel branded shower gel. He smelt like a darker, smokier version of the sea. It suited him, made Aaron hungrier for him than he ought to be mid-confrontation. But that was them, wasn’t it? Halfway between a fuck and a fight. Most of the time at least. There were other times when they were other people, almost normal, almost functioning – in the throes of a love people might just long for. But that was fleeting, rare. Most of the time they were themselves, lost in a love that was somewhere closer to a disaster.

“Oh. Didn’t you?” His eyebrows raised, his forehead creasing, and he turned so Aaron was presented with more of his face and the damp spread of pale skin across his chest.

“Well we agreed, didn’t we?”

“For now, yeah,” Robert said without leaving a pause as if not giving time for the rotten doubts to set in but he was naïve if he thought Aaron hadn’t already been through them himself. As if he hadn’t been awake that night and nights that came before it wondering if they were just looping past mistakes all over again. Lies and secrecy. Where had that got them before? This time, he reasoned, was different. This time he was protecting himself, his mum, Paddy. He wasn’t lying to keep Robert sweet, to keep him happy. Robert had been relaxed – as relaxed as he was capable – when Aaron had said he needed time before they came clean. This wasn’t just about what they wanted anymore. Too many people had been hurt before and would be hurt again once they knew. It needed handling carefully.  

“I just don’t want him dropping hints to my mum about where I was last night.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Nothing really. He just sort of assumed I’d spent the night with some bloke.”

Robert smiled and cocked his head to the side. “ _Some bloke_.”

“I’ll just come up with something to change the subject. I can’t be dealing with anything else to cover our backs.”

Robert knelt up onto the bed, his knees catching the towel and pulling it loose. It was riding low on his hips, teasing a patch of pubic hair as he hovered, two fists supporting him and digging into the sheets. “I mean, there’s always the truth. A five star hotel, a tall, handsome blond…”

“A snoring, ego maniac…”

“I’d forgotten how charming you are in the mornings…”

“You get what you deserve,” Aaron said letting a smile slip through. He allowed himself to sink down the bed a little and throw his arms out, spanning their full width. He could get lost in this bed and yet they’d spent parts of the night pressed together as if it were just a single. Aaron’s hand wandered and found the edge of Robert’s towel in his hand. He pulled, just a little.

Robert leaned in and over him and their mouths met for that first, slowest kiss of the day. With it, the black and treacherous smell of the ocean. Robert held his mouth open above Aaron’s and unwrapped himself from the towel.

There was desperation in the way Aaron angled his chin, strained his neck, to kiss again. His hand skimmed the new outline of Robert’s body, the clammy freshness of it, as he climbed on top of Aaron. Robert bent right down, pushing his lips onto Aaron’s in more of a promise than a kiss.

“Don’t do this for me,” he said. “If you want to tell Chas, tell her.”


End file.
